Course XIV - Teaching 13: Contemplation

Contemplation is the definitive step of the soul from Asceticism to Mysticism.
It is called Secret Science of God and Divine Gift because at this point of spiritual development, the soul is directly enlightened by the Masters; that is why some believe and state that it is a gift, a grace of certain privileged souls, but not of all, and even the most advanced souls cannot intend to reach it. This is totally wrong; all souls are called to the path of Contemplation, but they must constantly strive and fight for reaching this state, because Contemplation is the invariable result of a constant practice of exercises of Meditation and Concentration, and of virtues referred to Spiritual Development.
Continuous prayer, practice of virtues and self-control determined by the Inner Life are ascetic efforts that prepare the soul to get finally the mystic gift of Contemplation.
Since Contemplation liberates a being from the bonds of separateness, it leads him by a loving knowledge of the Divine Presence to be inhabited by It in such a way that everything remains transformed. The soul comes back to the Essential Unity, to the Cosmic Consciousness by means of will effort and wider self-knowledge.
This state is not fully achieved only in a moment. Sometimes, during the hours of exercises, or also during the day, the soul is as if in a rapture, suspended, totally in God, possessing a great Love and receiving lights of extraordinary knowledge. This is not only fleeting and also sometimes at longer intervals. But in spite of it, you should not abandon the exercises or believe that the purpose has been achieved; the souls take a long time to reach a perfect Contemplation. But these short raptures impress so much the individual that generally his Meditation consists exclusively in thinking again about those blissful moments. Every exercise, however lofty it may be, does not leave in the soul a true inner satisfaction. Sometimes even the astral visions disturb him because he would desire just to stay there calm and only with God.
Therefore, the state of Contemplation, however little it may be, grants a strange love of virtues; the individual practices them in such spontaneous way that for him it becomes easy and as if it were his second nature. It is as if the Divinity guided the soul and made this soul doing always the best.
But most times, after a prudential time, the soul remains definitively conquered, and prayer becomes pure Contemplation. Inadvertently, even out of the time for the exercise, the soul remains absorbed in God and when does not feel a clear bliss, then desolated because it is separated from the Supreme God, this also unites the soul with Him by the great sorrow and torment experienced.
For the souls that begin the spiritual path, apparently this is very hard to reach, but it is totally otherwise. Once they surrender sincerely to God and begin finding delight in spiritual things and prayer, they shall see that this is the only good and the only aspiration at which they can aim: to find God and to transform the soul into a Temple to be inhabited by the Divine.